Sony Hackers Hit by Hack Attack

Sony Hackers Hit by Hack Attack

The hacking group Lizard Squad has been hit by a cyber attack that exposed the entire database of people who signed up to use its services.

The group claimed to have knocked the Xbox and PlayStation gaming networks offline over Christmas.

It then set up a website that let anyone who paid to use its software to deluge other sites with data.

The attack that exposed the list of customers is one of several aimed at the group and its tools.

Brian Krebs, an investigative journalist, broke the news that the database behind the Lizard Stresser tool had been compromised.

The tool allowed people who paid use it to overwhelm websites or kick people offline by bombarding the sites with data.

Mr Krebs did not name the people who got the data, but did say he had acquired a list of the entire roster of the 14, 241 people who signed up.

In a blog post Mr Krebs said the Lizard Squad had not taken many precautions to protect the login and contact information surrendered by its users.

He said: "All registered usernames and passwords were stored in plain text."

He added that only a few hundred that had signed up had actually paid to use it.

Tech news site Ars Technica also got hold of the database dump, which was briefly posted on the mega file-sharing system. He said that most of those who used it were gamers keen to stop rivals playing a particular game.